The beauty (or curse) of the mile is it’s never over until…well, it’s over and done with. That was exemplified on Saturday morning as the 21st running of the Congress Avenue Mile had plenty of high drama.

Both races were won with late moves by Emily Dunn of San Antonio in 4:47.96 and Justin Brinkley of perennial Texas power Kingswood in 4:06.31.

This race annually brings together the top high school milers and two-milers from around Texas for one last race before summer hits. With its proximity to the State Champs, all the top high-school studs in Texas are still primed, tapered and ready to roll.

All those except Emily Dunn and her identical twin sister Janessa—both seniors—but since the Dunns are home schooled, neither was eligible for the State Meet last weekend and had only run in a low-key meet instead.

No problema. Emily and Janessa immediately too the lead ahead of the other 50 girls after dropping down from 12th Street onto Congress Avenue, right in front of the Capitol for the mile-long plunge down to the finish on the Congress Avenue Ann Richards Bridge.

Emily, wearing number 11, and Janessa, in number 12, matched each other stride for stride in near perfect cadence. The two went through the 400-meter mark in 1:12 (but the spot was wrong) and motored through halfway in 2:20. But Emily has better mile speed than her sister and as soon as they hit the bridge with 300 meters to go, she found another gear.

“I was scared,” said Emily, “because Janessa looked so strong. She’s better at the longer distances than me and I do better at the mile than she does so I thought maybe I could pick it up and if I could, I might be able to drop her.”

Drop here she did. While Janessa faded in the last 300 meters (all the way to ninth), Emily was able to accelerate and finished in a PR of 4:47.96.

“That final stretch on the bridge felt awfully long,” said Dunn who, along with her sister, will run for the University of Tulsa next season. “The finish line seemed like it would never get there.”

Coming in second was Arin Rice of Canyon HS, the 4A 800-meter champ, in 4:50.60 and Rachel Baptista, the senior from Austin HS, grabbed third in 4:50.76.

For Baptista, who had her senior track season interrupted by

mononucleosis (she was fourth in the 2-mile at States), the Congress Mile was a fitting end to her stellar high-school running career. She had run Congress Avenue three times, but had never placed.

“I’m happy with the way I ran this morning,” said Baptista who will attend the University of Colorado. “Anytime you run a PR, you have to be happy.”

Among the happiest of all the runners on Saturday morning was Justin Brinkley, a lanky junior at Kingswood HS in Humble. Brinkley was third in States in the mile in 4:09 and was severely disappointed.

“I was too aggressive and went out too fast,” said Brinkley. “I didn’t want to make that mistake again.”

On Saturday, Brinkley, running for the second time on the fast Congress Avenue course, was determined to be more patient.

Sure enough, Daniel Vertiz of San Antonio Reagan bolted into the lead and tried stealing the race from the front as the leaders went through the quarter in 60 seconds.

Meanwhile, lurking just off the pace was UT-bound Craig Lutz of Flower Mound who was inexplicably wearing a pair of spikes without the spikes. But Lutz is more of a 2-miler than miler and he could never close the gap on Vertiz.

Then, on the Congress Bridge, with less than 150 meters to go, Brinkley made his one and only move and rocketed into the lead, seemingly from out of nowhere.

“When I ran Congress last year, I made the same mistake everyone seems to make here—I went out too fast and ended up running 4:17,” said Brinkley after his victory in 4:06.31. “This time, I just wanted to relax and let the other guys worry about who was in front.”

The leaders went through halfway in 1:55 which was way too rich, but only Brinkley with an 800-meter best of 1:52, sensed the pace was too fast.

“I was way in the back, but I really felt that they would come back to me,” said Brinkley, “and once they did, I could pick them off.”

Which is exactly what he did.

Troy Taylor got second in 4:08.06 and Vertiz hung on for third in 4:09. Lutz finished 12th in 4:13.

“This is my second time on Congress Avenue and I plan to come back next year,” Brinkley who runs every distance for Kingswood and refuses to label himself as a miler. “I don’t limit myself to any one distance. I’m just a distance runner.”

Results: http://www.cadencesportsonline.com/results.cfm